EPISODE EIGHTEEN - REBECCA THE EDITOR
Rebecca watched Matoaka as she told the story of the defeat of the 6000. The horror of the battle showed on her face, deep lines and a frown that furrowed her entire forehead and made her look very old. Rebecca did not say a word when Mat talked about Big Bear the Phantom of the Mohawk. She saw no reason to tell Mato that he was in Paris with her daughter and the Buerer family had agreed to spend a small fortune to support the Bear Clan of the Mohawk Nation. Then when she talked of her son Little Wolf, her face lit up and she looked like a young girl. But that changed quickly to a sullen mood and she quit talking altogether. Rebecca assumed it was bad news and changed the subject in an attempt to allow Mato relief from her memories.
The subject changed to King George II, and how he was as bad as his father, George I, just another German King that didn’t care about England, much less the colonies. Mato didn’t respond so eventually they back to the house and nothing else was said that day or any other for that matter. Mato returned to the mysterious woman she was before she talked about her past. She was still Rebecca’s companion but no further word about her tribe or her son.
Rebecca told Hans that night about Matoaka and her early life as a princess-warrior, but he seemed distant. Hans was still not talking about what was bothering him and Seabreeze wasn’t going to push him to do so. She figured when he was ready he would tell her what was going on.
The society functions were year round and Rebecca continued to go even though Hans had quit going some time ago. It was at one of the charity balls that Benjamin Franklin came up to her and asked if she would be interested in becoming an editor for his new publication the Pennsylvania Gazette. She knew who he was from her husband’s friends. That night she told Hans of Franklin’s offer. Hans didn’t say much so she decided to take the position if she could work at home for half the time. She went back to Franklin to tell him she would take the position. From all the reading she had done, the early exploration and early settlements were of particular interest to her. She proposed to him a series on the early arrivals of Europeans in the colonies. He agreed.
Highlights of her series started with Juan Ponce de Leon’s search for Bimini where there was gold and the magical Fountain of Youth. He failed to find either. He returned in 1521, the Calusa Indians were less welcoming as he built a small colony on the west coast of Florida. Within a few months the Indians attacked the colony, killed many Spanish including Ponce de Leon and drove the rest away. She began with Ponce de Leon because Columbus never reached the shores of North America. Next came Hernando de Soto, who traveled extensively throughout the southeast and was welcomed by the Native peoples initially but changed when he began to enslave the Indians in 1539.
It was almost 30 years later in 1564 the French built Fort Caroline, Florida. The Spanish settled St. Augustine, Florida one year later. And in 1607 the English founded Jamestown, Virginia. The Indians welcomed the foreigners mostly for the trade that came with them like metal tools and firearms which they thought they could use to defeat their Indian enemies.
Because the Native population had no built in immunities to diseases, in some parts of the southeast 9 out of10 Indians died from measles to chicken pox. Alcohol was also introduced and after 200 years of European influence the history and traditions of the native population was well along the road to be destroyed.
The information in her articles was not new, nor of any real concern to people in Philadelphia. The response from the readership was minimal. Rebecca became discouraged from writing any more articles. She voiced her concerns to Franklin but he said that she should try another series before giving up. She thought long and hard about a series and decided to pick up where Ben had left off with Silence Dogood. Six years earlier Ben had used the Non de Plume of the fictional widow Silence Dogood to tell of the mistreatment of women in society and had been wildly successful in Boston for his brother James’ newspaper The New England Courant. Being the first newspaper in Boston gave James a great position to state his views, which included being against inoculations against small pox, believing they only made a person sicker. Because James made fun of the prominent Puritan preachers, the Mathers, who supported inoculations, he was thrown into jail for his views. Ben ran the paper in his absence, but was harassed and beaten by James when released from jail out of jealousy. When she asked Ben permission to revive the Silence Dogood character, Ben thought it would cause too many problems with his brother and denied the request. Then she asked if she could tell the readers his life story and he said she could, but only if she didn’t put the readers to sleep while doing so. They both laughed but she was never sure if he meant that his life was boring or if he was giving her permission to spice up the facts to entertain the readers.
The story she told began with his birth January 17, 1706 as the tenth son of a soap maker Josiah Franklin and Abiah Folger, his second wife. Josiah intended Ben to become a clergy, but since he could only afford one year of schooling when clergy required many years of schooling he decided to have him apprentice as a printer like his brother James. Ben loved to read and helped his brother compose pamphlets and set type, a grueling job. By 12 he was selling their products on the Bostonian streets.
When he ran away from his brother at 17, after repeated beatings, he was breaking the law, since all people were expected to have a place in society. He took a boat to New York where he hoped to find work as a printer, he didn’t. He eventually reached Philadelphia wet, disheveled, and messy and met Deborah Read on October 6, 1723, the woman he would marry seven years later.
Franklin found work as an apprentice printer and did so well the governor of Pennsylvania promised to set him up in business if he went to London to buy fonts and printing equipment. The governor reneged on his promise and Ben was forced to stay and work in London for several months. Before leaving for London, he had been staying with the Read family and when Deborah began talking of marriage he told her he wasn’t ready. While he was in London she married another man. Upon his return he got work as a printer’s helper and soon borrowed money to start his own business. He worked all the time and soon people in Philadelphia noticed the young Ben and began giving him work, including government jobs.
At 22, Ben fathered a child named William with an unknown mother, but in 1730 married Deborah Read, whose husband had run off. In addition to the print shop, the Franklins also ran their own store, selling everything from soap to fabric. Ben also ran a book store while managing the other two businesses.
A year earlier Ben had bought the newspaper Pennsylvania Gazette which became the most successful in the colonies. He also found time to organize the “Junto” club which later became the American Philosophical Society. Another club he organized was the “Leathern Apron Club” a secret society (non-Masonic) and later printed an article in his paper pretending to reveal Masonic mysteries. When Ben saw the series he smiled and said she could run it over the next three issues.
As the hours increased and the days got longer, she saw less and less of Hans. He had his own problems with the business and now that the winter was in full force the orders had come to a complete halt. The spring and summer of ‘29 had not brought much by way of new orders and Hans became more and more despondent. The new equipment sat idle much of the time and Hans struggled to think of some other use for the equipment. Unfortunately rock crushing and resurfacing machines are ill adapted to other products. The bank his family had done business with for decades was not in a apposition to refinance the loan. Hans for the first time had to consider selling the business and trying something else for a living. This might be done fairly easily by a man who had tried other lines of work as a younger man but at his age this was an impossible task. The wealth of the family would stay intact as far as accounts and city bonds of Philadelphia and New York, but the cash flow for expenses would be curtailed enough that they may have to find more suitable accommodations to fit the lower revenues. He finally told Rebecca about their financial situation. She was supportive and said he was the man in her life and it didn’t matter to her where they shared their life, then she added her concern about Matoaka as a companion in their new life. He assured her that Mato could stay no matter what happens in the future, it was more the matter of a large estate needed so many people to run effectively and a smaller place back in the city made sense. She had no objection to returning to the city since her editorial job was so demanding of her time and it did take quite a effort to get to the Gazette each day. Hans advertised in New York since he didn’t think he could get much from local businessmen who would know the business climate in Philadelphia. Two months later a man with money from the rum and slave business paid him top dollar for the business, including taking over the loan on the new equipment. Hans’ mood picked up considerably with the sale and was a most agreeable man.
Seabreeze kept thinking about the stories Matoaka had told her. The fact that the man that had killed Mato’s father and husband was now protecting her daughter in Paris and hopefully Mato will never find out. Rebecca feared that Mato would be honor bound to avenge her father’s death. Big Bear’s father Great Bear was brother to the Bear Clan chief Hiawatha an inherited name/title passed down through the families from the middle of the 15th century.
The other thing that kept coming to mind was the fact the Iroquois Nations could control such a vast area of land so effectively. She went to the Jesuit father in Philadelphia and asked how the Iroquois Confederation could do such a thing. He told her the story of Hiawatha the statesman, peacemaker, and co-founder of the Iroquois League. After hearing the story she asked Franklin if she could do a multi-part series on Hiawatha. He asked her what would be the interest from the readership in such a series. She said it would show how the regard of Englishmen for their Magna Charta and Bill of Rights seems weak in comparison with the intense gratitude and reverence of the Five Nations for the “Great Peace” which Hiawatha and his colleagues established for them. He countered with the argument that such a statement would have to be substantiated with facts not just the proposition that such is true. Rebecca said that if he allowed ample space over many issues, she would include key sections of the Iroquois “Book of Rites”, sometimes called the “Book of the Condoling Council”, that contain speeches, songs, ceremonies, and records of the proceedings. This book would show that instead of a race of rude and ferocious warriors, we find a kindly and affectionate people, full of sympathy for their friends in distress, considerate to their women, tender to their children, anxious for peace, and imbued with a profound reverence for their constitution and its authors. This shows the fact that these Indians have presented themselves to the outside world in a deceptive and factitious manner. The ferocity, craft, and cruelty, which have been deemed their leading traits, have been merely the natural accompaniments of wars of self-preservation, when war is a struggle for national existence, common to all races. Ben looked at her with a new eye to her potential as a stateswoman and spokesperson for the colonies in the inevitable upcoming conflict. Then after some time he told her she could have two columns, second page and no more than one column on the back page to finish. She was surprised with his generosity. He seldom allowed so much space for any articles, even his editorials.
When the first Europeans arrived, the land occupied by the Five Nations was in the same condition it was in the Stone Age. Ancient Iroquois towns will have implements of flint and bone, ornaments of shells, and fragments of rude pottery. The Iroquois confederacy dates from around 1450. The Mohawks were the original tribe, from which all the others were offshoots. Although they were occasionally at war with one another, they were constantly at war with the fierce Algonquins, Lenni Lenape, who surrounded them. They also had to withstand attacks from more distant tribes; Hurons, Cherokees, and Dakotas. Yet they were not peculiarly a warlike people. They had large and strongly palisaded towns, well-cultivated fields, and substantial houses, sometimes a hundred feet long, in which many kindred families dwelt together. Seabreeze thought of the first time she saw Big Bear and how the sun dimmed somewhat as he appeared. She couldn’t imagine him tending the well-cultivated fields.
At this time, there were two great dangers, one from without, the other from within. The Mohegans, or Mohicans, a powerful Algonquin tribe, whose settlements stretched along the Hudson River, south of the Mohawks, and extending to New England, waged a desperate war against them. The Mohawks and the Oneidas were the most easterly of the five tribes and bore the brunt of the fighting. The most westerly tribes, the Senecas and the Cayugas had the middle tribe to contend with, the Onondagas with its war chief Atotarho, or Wataotahlo, or Tododaho, a remorseless tyrant. Any chief that opposed him was taken off by secret means or had to hide in another village to survive. Atoarho means “entangled” and legend soon had him with his head adorned with living snakes.
There was another Onondagas chief at that time, Hiawatha, or Hayonwatha, or Ayongwhata, or Taoungwatha, “he who seeks the wampum belt”. He had been grieved by the evil he saw in the many wars between the tribes and after much deliberation, had elaborated in his mind the scheme of a vast confederation which would ensure universal peace. Although the idea was not new, it had unique aspects. The first was a permanent government of a federal senate and secondly that it not be limited in that all tribes of men could join. The avowed purpose was to abolish all wars.
Hiawatha started with his own tribe but Atotarho would have nothing to do with it and broke up both attempts to form a counsel to discuss the plan. Hiawatha covered himself with skins and stayed alone for some time, after which he got up and left the village leaving the smiling Atotarho to watch what appeared to be a voluntary exile. He plunged into a forest, climbed a mountain, and floated down the Mohawk River, a flight that is likened to Mohammed’s flight from Mecca to Medina by votaries of Islam. Although small, white shells strung in necklaces was not new, their use to signify peace was. So Hiawatha is given credit for inventing “wampum”.
Early one morning he arrived at a Mohawk town of the chief Dekanawidah, son of an Onondaga father and a Mohawk mother. He was not the leading chief. That position was held by Tekarihoken, or Tecarihoga. He sat himself down on a fallen log close to where the tribe drew their water. When told of a man with with shells all over his chest Dekanawidah sent for “the guest”. The men were kindred spirits and soon word was sent to the Oneidas who said they would think on it for one day, the Indians used one day to signify one year. The Oneidas chief Odatshehte, “the quiver-bearer”, returned a year later in agreement. The Cayugan chief Akahenyonk, “the wary spy” joined for another attempt to convince Atotarho to join and finally by assuring him of absolute veto power over all decisions, he consented. Now firmly in power Atotarho was anxious to extend the confederacy to include the Seneca tribes to the west. Overcoming the initia suspicion for the Onondagas after years of war, the two chiefs, Kanyadariyo, “beautiful lake” and Shadekaronyes, “the equal skies” joined the league.
The first members of the counsel were selected by convention but replacements were chosen by a method that had female suffrage as the determining factor. When a chief died his successor could be any descendent of the late chief’s mother or grandmother – his brother, his cousin, or his nephew – but never his son. The new chief inherited the name of his predecessor. In this respect the resemblance of the Great Council to the English House of Peers is striking. Dekanawidah alone refused to have his name passed down since he was the founder of the league and in that sense no other man could do that again. Although Hiawatha had conceived of the league, it was Dekanawidah that made it a reality by personally driving through the structure of the Grand Council.
The hereditary enemies of the Iroquois, the Cherokees, never joined the league, probably out of suspicion. Limited success was achieved with the western Algonquins. A strict alliance that lasted many years was formed with the far-spread Ojibways, although the Huron defeat unraveled it somewhat. The Tuscaroras, expelled by the English from North Carolina, took refuge with the Iroquois. The Tuteloes and Saponies, of Dakota stock, after many wars found comfort with the Iroquois. Many fragments of the Algonquin lineage – Delaware (Lenni Lenapes), Nanticokes, Mohicans, and Mississagas found refuge in the league.
The legend of Hiawatha over the years became intermingled with stories of Onondagas and Ojibway deities that had wild adventures. One story was when Hiawatha descended from the heavens in a white canoe which reminds one of the labors of Hercules. He stayed on earth long enough to have a varied series of adventures then established the confederacy and bestowing many prudent counsels upon the people, then ascending into the skies the way he came. He also became an Ojibways demigod, son of the West Wind, and companion of the tricky Paupukkeewis, the boastful Iago, and the strong Kwasind. In the end he was improperly identified with the Iroquois deity Aronhiawagon and the Manabozho, the fantastic divinity of the Ojibways.
The reception of the articles from the Gazette readers was very favorable, allowing her more freedom in the choices of material for future articles. Ben was pleased with his choice of editor, and went out of his way to encourage her to experiment with unusual topics and misunderstood concepts. Her work was turning out to be critical in the success of the paper and driving the circulation to new levels with subscriptions coming in from other colonies. Her work was all consuming as she searched records of any source she could find. Many private libraries were made available to her through her friends in Philadelphian society and the vast library of the Jesuits. Her appetite for knowledge, although always healthy in the past, became a demon in her life, ruling her every waking moment. This took its toll on her marriage, particularly since Hans had a new found freedom of time and no particular interests as of yet to consume these new hours in the day. Each time he asked her to go somewhere or do something with him, if she did hear him from the thoughts running around in her mind, she would say something at least vaguely related to the subject but non-committal in nature. Eventually he quit asking her to join him.
TO BE CONTINUED